Martina Imbimbo1, Giulia Pasello2, Paolo Zucali3, Milena Vitali1, Iacopo Petrini4, Giovannella Palmieri5, Rossana Berardi6, Valter Torri7, Marina C. Garassino1, Annalisa Trama8
1Unit of Thoracic Oncology, IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy;2Unit of Medical Oncology, Veneto Institute of Oncology IOV-IRCCS, Padua, Italy;3Department of Medical Oncology And Haematology, Humanitas Cancer Center, IRCCS, Milan, Italy;4Unit of Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacogenetic, Department of Clinical And Experimental Medicine, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy;5Department of Clinical Medicine And Surgery, University Federico II of Naples, Naples, Italy;6Unit of Medical Oncology, Università Politecnica delle Marche, AOU Ospedali Riuniti di Ancona, Ancona, Italy;7Department of Oncology, IRCCS Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Milan, Italy;8Unit of Evaluative Epidemiology, IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy
Abstract: In Italy the incidence of thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) is 0.36/100,000 corresponding to 230 new cases/year. Due to their rarity, the management of patients should be done in expert centres, where dedicated multidisciplinary teams are present. TYME is a national network that includes seven Italian expert centres for TETs whose activities comprise the referral for histological revisions, multidisciplinary team discussion, clinical trials, and the collection of clinical information in a shared database. Furthermore TYME will cooperate with French network RYTHMIC and the centres also are part of the European reference networks (ERNs) on rare adult solid cancers (EURACAN). One of the objectives of the network is to create clinical guidelines that could be useful to uniform treatment nationwide. The First Italian Consensus Conference for TETs will be held in Milan, in July 2017 and will be attended by medical oncologists, radiotherapists, surgeons, pathologists, epidemiologists and statisticians belonging to TYME expert centres. Several aspects will be discussed, from epidemiology to histological diagnosis, staging systems, management of paraneoplastic syndromes, differential diagnosis, treatments and post treatment surveillance. This meeting will support the implementation of ESMO, NCCN and ITMIG guidelines aligned to Italian clinical practice and regulations. Furthermore experts will discuss several controversies such as the need of histological confirmation before a total thymectomy, the best staging system, the role of adjuvant therapy in stage II and III thymomas, treatment of stage IVA and IVB disease and preferred chemotherapy regimens for thymomas and thymic carcinomas. Electronic search of relevant evidences will be organized. Quality of evidences will be rated according to adapted GRADE methodology (http://www.gradeworkinggroup.org/). A summary of the meeting will be presented.
Keywords: Guidelines; consensus conference; thymoma; thymic carcinoma
doi: 10.21037/med.2017.AB053
